


Holding Out

by KaminariDenki



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Mama Liet, will add characters as they appear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-25 05:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14372343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaminariDenki/pseuds/KaminariDenki
Summary: Toris just wanted to live a normal life, but then an outbreak of an unstoppable, infectious virus sends the entire country into chaos and he realizes maybe living alone in this barren, almost-dead world isn't as easy as television shows make it seem.Until he meets Raivis and Eduard, two very afraid and very alone survivors. Maybe it's just his paternal instincts speaking, but perhaps he could hold out just a little longer to protect them?





	1. Chapter 1

Toris was just sixteen when the entire world went to shit.

A situation dubbed _The Apocalypse_ had started when a simple sickness spread throughout the country. It was a little worrying, but people paid no mind, doctors would fix everything with their magic medicine and all will be fine.

Or so they thought. The doctor's attempts to fend the sickness off failed, their new and improved shots only made things worse. No one knew what was in the shots, but soon reports of people dropping dead began showing up, overtaking the news and causing an uproar.

But the most shocking thing was how after forty-two hours of death, the people woke up, but they weren't normal. A quarter of the earth's population had been wiped out by the illness, but now over half were killed by the thought-to-be-dead. Toris, who had been living by himself, isolated in his tiny apartment, luckily managed to survive, though he couldn't say the same to his friends and neighbours.

He was now eighteen and had just about become skilled at murdering undead monsters who were not quite human. Quite the hobby he's acquired. But then again, he doesn't really have choice. In this apocalyptic wasteland, it's either kill or be killed.

He's spent his two years of killing zombies alone in a small café, gathering weapons and food and scouting for any supplies he could find. When he first arrived, he was a little disappointed when the pastries that used to be sold had gone stale before he arrived, but stashed them away anyways. Then there was also the mangled, rotten bodies behind the counter that had made him a little more than sick to the stomach. He stayed away from the counter as often as he could, choosing to hang around in the storage room, where mouldy and old breads and rusted and useless tools sat, sitting uselessly on the shelves.

The time he spent not out searching for any signs of actually-alive life, he would reread the magazines he'd collected to pass time, flipping bored lay through the pages he swore he read about a billion times, or he'd move around the shop, cleaning everything and clearing away dust and squashing the bugs that managed to get in, his usual weapon, a large butcher knife, was replaced with a broom, which he wielded like a sword. He was currently on the hunt for ants, his duty of sweeping the entire place clean (with the exception of behind the counter) was currently on hold, as it seems a colony of ants had decided to share his living space without his permission.

Toris inched closer to the parade of ants carelessly making their way from a small hole in the floorboards to the counter, gripping the broom's handle title. He raised his weapon high above his head, and slammed it onto the line of bugs, sweeping them towards the door. The ants scattered across the floor and he quickly swept them away. He turned to take care of the others ones, when something moving in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

A person, at least he hoped they were alive, was limping slowly along the sidewalk, a long, shot-gun shaped object in his hands. His dirty blue pants were stained red around the ankle on his right foot and his hand clenched tightly at his thigh. He was across the street from Toris, looking straight ahead.

Without thinking, he called out to the boy, "hey!"

His head whipped towards him, raising his gun and posting it warningly towards him, "wh-what do you want?"

"You're the first survivor I've seen in a few years, I just want to talk. You're injured, yeah? I have medical supplies, I can patch you up," Toris suggested, his voice light and kind.

The teen's eyes flicked across his figure before landing on the café behind him. Toris could see the gears turning in his head as he wondered if he could trust him. He hesitantly lowered his gun, limping over to him.

Tori's smiled warmly at him, pulling the door open. The boy entered the cafe, glancing around. Toris gestured toward a seat, inviting him to sit down. After the kid complied, he entered the storage room and grabbed some bandages and gauze and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. He trotted back out, placing the supplies on the nearest table.

He crouched down, his hand hovering above the leg, "may I?" Toris asked. After the teen nodded, he carefully rolled the pant leg up. The wound was a wide slash about the length of his finger. It was bright red and oozing blood and pus, the area around it angry and swelled. He reached up and grabbed the hydrogen peroxide, pouring some onto a wad of gauze. He glanced up, gently pressing the wad to the wound, watching as his patient winced.

The slash bubbled heavily, a white foam-like substance rising. It faded quickly and he wiped the excess away, the gauze collecting gunks of blood and pus. After making sure he cleaned it properly, Toris pressed clean gauze to the wound and wrapped bandages around the leg.

"It seems to be infected," Toris mumbled as he stood up and brushed imaginary dust from his pants, "it'll hopefully go away if we keep an eye on it. So, what's your name?" He asked.

"Thanks. It's Eduard," he answered, inspecting his leg before rolling the fabric down.

Toris held his hand out, "It's nice to meet you, Eduard. My name is Toris.im actually a little glad there's another person, I swear I was starting to go insane without any sort of human socialization," he chuckled dryly.

Eduard grabbed his hand and shook it. Toris then helped him up, turning his head to stare outside the dirt-tinted window, noticing how dark the sky had gotten. "It's getting late," Toris stated. He gestured for Eduard to follow him, leading him to the storage room where he'd set his bed up, which really was just a pathetic and thin sleeping bag.

"You can sleep here, I usually do, but I'll find some where else. Oh and don't look behind the counter, you don't want to see what's there," Toris suggested. He watched as the blonde boy nodded, quietly thanking him as he slipped into the sleeping bag. Toris bid him goodnight, leaving the room to lock the front door before heading back in and digging a ratty old blanket from his backpack, laying it on the floor, settling on top of it.

He peered curiously at Eduard, watching as he took his glasses off his face, placing them on the floor beside him.

After years of isolation, Toris was glad to have someone to talk to, even if it turns out they have bad intentions. Even before the apocalypse, he usually just focused on schoolwork, not bothering to make friends or speak to others. Well, there was someone who would often force himself into his house but Toris doubted he was even alive. He was a realist, not a pessimist, he assured himself.

But he couldn't help but frown sadly at the ache in his chest at the thought of him. Feliks Łukasiewicz, his best friend who most definitely would _not_ survive the apocalypse. What he would give to see him again... Humming quietly, Toris sighed and curled into a tight ball, closing his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

~~~~"Are you _sure_ you're fine enough to leave?" Toris asked worriedly, tying the fresh bandage on Eduard's leg.

The blonde glared up at him in annoyance, having become accustomed to his doting mother hen behaviour after just two weeks of staying with him. "I'll be fine. If my leg bothers me, I'll tell you," he scoffed, standing up.

Toris sighed and grabbed his backpack, rolling the sleeping bag up and strapping it on top of his bag. He had just recently caught sightings of a rather large herd that was quickly approaching, deciding that holding the fort and waiting for the herd to pass was a bad idea. So, he gathered important supplies, fretted constantly over Eduard's health and prepared them both to get the hell out of the area, hoping to leave as soon as possible since there was no way the undead were going to wait for them to go away.

He handed Eduard his shotgun, his hand itching to grasp his knife as they exited the shop. When Toris looked to his left, he could just barely make out a few zombies dotting the horizon, the rising sun casting shadows upon them. They were moving fairly slow, but Toris knew to not underestimate them. The more zombies, the higher chance of getting eaten, so as quick as he could, Toris jogged away from the café with Eduard trotting on his heels.

He was relieved when the blonde's wound healed quickly, allowing him to walk normally and even run, instead of limping every where due to pain. There would certainly be times when he would need to make a quick getaway, as the streets were most definitely filled with the undead.

He snuck around a car, crouching low and slowly making his way down the sidewalk. Vehicles were sprawled across the street, some crookedly parked while others were overturned. How they got like that, Toris didn't know. Most were covered in rust and their windshields bloodied and broken, tons of glass scattered all over the road. Some glass crunched under his boots as he stepped carefully over it, wincing and glancing up to look warily at the nearest zombie, which paid no heed to the noise he was making.

Eduard took a big step over the shards, his tattered sneakers would definitely be no match for the small, sharp objects. He followed Toris silently as they made their way through the barren town, his nose scrunching up at the sour smell of rotting flesh and infection. He had no idea where they were heading, but he trusted Toris and hoped that the brunette at least had an idea of where they were going.

And his hopes were answered, as Toris piped up, breaking the stifling silence, "This way. I believe we should make it out of the town by tomorrow."

They turned through an alleyway, Eduard checking over his shoulder to make sure no zombies had followed them. When he caught no movement, he quickened his pace to catch up with Toris, who had stumbled into one. He watched as the brunette slipped his butcher knife out of the side pocket of his bag and kicked the creature in its shins, bringing it to its knees, where he promptly slammed the sharp edge onto its head. A gross squelching sound emitted from it, accompanied by a deep growl as it reached feebly towards its attacker.

Toris pulled the weapon from its head, stumbling back a bit but he recovered quickly, jumping forwards to slash it in the same spot he hit before. Dark, sticky blood splattered the ground as he once again forced the knife out of the creature's skull, the zombie falling limp. Toris hummed quietly as he wiped the blood onto his pants then slipped the knife back into the backpack's pocket.

"Everything okay...?" Eduard asked, staring cautiously at the zombie. He stepped around it, following Toris out of the alleyway.

"Yeah... It just surprised me," Toris chuckled awkwardly, scratching his cheek. Now that he was out in the open, he could see that there were more zombies loitering about than the last street. If Toris had the choice, he'd definitely go through the other road, but since their plan was to leave the city, he had no choice but to follow this street, as the other one didn't lead out, plus tight-knit buildings and stores cut the two in half, blocking any access to either streets— with the exception of alleyways.

"Damn... That's a lot..." Eduard mumbled in awe, kneeling beside him as they watched the undead stumble around aimlessly, moaning and grunting. Toris nodded in agreement.

Eduard glanced around, craning his neck to see if there was any kind of opening they could slip through, when he caught sight of a large building in the distance with the letters _mal_ printed on the side of it. He nudged the man beside him, gesturing to the building.

Toris squinted his eyes, holding his hand to his eyebrows to block the glaring sun from his vision, "mal...? Hey, I think that's the mall!"

"Do you think it might still have supplies?" Eduard asked.

"In movies and shows, malls are a common place for people to scout, but we should check it out just in case if there's anything good there," Toris smiled softly, moving forwards. Eduard followed him as he wandered along the sidewalk, his gaze flitting around for any signs of an approaching zombie.

He made his way closer to the mall, going through the parking lot. He jumped in surprise as Eduard yelped when a zombie— which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere— grabbed his arm, it's bloodied, bony hands gripping him tightly as it leaned forwards in an attempt to feast on his flesh.

Toris lunged at it, prying its fingers off the blonde's struggling limb, kicking it away. Eduard finished it off by striking his gun at it, the butt of its muzzle (–the gun's, not the zombie) slamming into the creature's forehead. It fell back, twitching uselessly on the ground. The brunette sighed, holding a hand to his chest. "You didn't get bit, did you?" He asked, inspecting the blonde's arm.

Eduard shook his head, "no. I thankfully didn't."

"Good. Let's continue," Toris patted his shoulder.

They quickly made it to the two wide doors, opening them and entering the building. After searching around a bit, nothing good came up in relation to anything edible. All of the food at the fast food chains in the cafeteria were old and rotting, as there was no electricity to keep them cool. Toris and Eduard did take some clothes from a clothes store and stuffed them into a stolen backpack which Eduard got to keep, as Toris already had his.

They decided to settle down in an antique shop on the first floor, which luckily had a security gate that Toris could unfold and drag across the storefront to keep them safe in case of an attack, whether it be by zombies or humans. (He certainly hoped they didn't run into a person with ill intentions. Or any zombies.)

They set up a small camp behind the counter (which it thankfully didn't have a mauled up zombie behind it). When he glanced out the large sun roof in the middle of the mall, Toris could see they had wasted quite a bit of time exploring almost everything in the mall and that it was around noon, the sun beginning to dip down.

"It's probably around suppertime by now..." He thought out loud to himself, watching the clouds idly drift across the sky. He turned around and trotted back to their temporary home, walking past Eduard, who was inspecting his almost healed ankle, sitting on the ground with his legs crossed. Toris crouched in front of his backpack and pulled out a can of diced pineapples, searching for the expiration date, relief flooding through him when he saw the date hadn't passed.

Taking his knife out, he carefully aligned the tip of it to the can's top, digging into the thin metal, dragging the blade around the circle until it popped off. He took the top off and carefully took a piece of the fruit out, popping it into his mouth. His tastebuds danced at the taste of something sweet, a thing he was sure he had grown to forget, since his diet mostly contained nuts and bland canned beans. He turned to Eduard holding the can out.

The blonde hummed and picked one out, placing it into his mouth and chewing, muttering a small thanks.

Toris chuckled and placed the precious can on the ground in between them. He was reaching to grab another slice of pineapple, when a loud, distant scream sounded.

Alarmed, both Toris and Eduard jumped to their feet, the latter following after the former as they raced out of the store. They followed the screaming, coming to the source, which was in the centre of the mall.

A boy, around the age of fifteen, was wailing loudly as a few zombies surrounded him, latching onto his limbs and clothes, snapping at him hungrily. He toppled to the ground, his undead attackers following after him. They quickly adjusted to the change of position and continued their onslaught of random biting in any places they could reach.

Toris, though defenceless, grabbed the neck of one, dragging it off, stomping onto its head. Eduard hurried forwards to deliver a solid punch to another, it's neck cracking freakishly. After the rest of the monsters had been killed, Toris turned to the kid.

He was shaking violently, his entire body trembling. His arms were covering his face, which was stained with tears and blood. His wild, light brownish blonde hair was also covered in the coppery liquid, along with his thin, torn clothes. When Toris reached forwards as a gesture to help him up, the kid flinched and whined, fearful pale cerulean eyes overflowing with fresh tears.

"L-leave me alone! Don't hurt me!" He howled, flailing his legs, his foot catching Toris' knee.

When the brunette winced and leaned down to grasp at his knees as pain flowed through them, the kid scrambled to his feet and as quickly as possible, escaped away, disappearing down one of the many hallways. Toris held his hand out in a vain attempt at stopping him, moving to follow him, but Eduard grabbed his arm, shaking his head.

"If we're lucky, he'll stay here and run into us again soon, but for now, leave him alone," he said as he began walking back to their campsite. Toris, albeit hesitant, followed after him, silently wondering how a timid kid managed to survive this long in the apocalypse.


End file.
